UAE | Crime

Illegal labourer found dead on job site

Sharjah: Six men have been taken into police custody following the grisly discovery of the decomposing body of an illegal labourer in a hole on a construction site.

The arrests come after a complaint was made by a man who was passing by the construction site near Al Saouh owned by Al Dhaid Municipality.

The man reported to police that there was a foul stench emanating from a location where there appeared to be fresh spatters of blood.

A forensics team from the Criminal Investigation Department of Sharjah Police soon combed the scene where the body was recovered along with evidence including the victim’s identification that revealed he was an Indian national.

A quick background check into the labourer found that the man had apparently absconded from his former job in 2008 and had been working illegal jobs ever since, police said.

Sharjah police inquiries so far have led them to believe that the dead illegal was working under the table for Dh45 a day for a construction company which also employed the same six men arrested by authorities. The dead man has not been identified publicly by police pending notification of relatives in his home country.

Police said they have learned that the six men and the dead man worked together and were sharing accommodation as well.

According to police investigators, the six men said they were consuming alcohol with the victim last Friday and afterward, the victim entered a power room on the construction site to sleep it off.

Workers suggested that when they found the lifeless body of their illegal workmate the next day in the power room, the victim had unwittingly suffocated after inhaling exhaust emissions from a generator inside the room that was running while he slept.

Fearful for the consequences of hiring an illegal labourer, the workers told police that they dumped the body in a hole on the construction site, rather than report the man’s death to authorities.

The police probe, meanwhile, continues into the man’s death to determine the final outcome of the fate of the men being held in custody.

Police said the case will be referred to Al Dhaid prosecutors.

Brigadier Abdullah Mubarak Al Dukan, deputy commander in chief of Sharjah police, said the discovery of the dead illegal worker took place only a week before the end of the amnesty period for illegals in the UAE.

He said that despite efforts by some illegal workers to remain in the country, Sharjah police will continue to investigate and deport workers without visas and the companies who continue to hire them.